The present invention relates generally to a vehicle having a rear crossing path detection and warning system and method for assisting vehicle operators in backing out of parking spaces.
Vehicle technologies that assist drivers with parking may increase convenience and safety for vehicle operators. One such technology is cross traffic alert, which assists vehicle operators who are backing out of parking spaces by warning if cross traffic is approaching the back of the host vehicle on a potentially intersecting trajectory with the host vehicle. Such systems are somewhat limited in effectiveness, however, due to variations in parking space configurations, angles and parking lot infrastructure from one parking lot to the next. This makes the system somewhat less reliable in sorting out infrastructure and approaching vehicles where a driver alert is desired from extraneous/non-threatening objects where a false alert may be generated. Due to this limitation, a tradeoff is employed where some false alerts are allowed and are balanced against a possibility that some targets might be missed. This system tradeoff is undesirable for some vehicle operators, and hence, a more accurate system is desired.